Child of Lust and Loss
by nattyzeenha
Summary: (Full Summary inside) A child who is not youkai, not human, and not hanyou. A being created by the strongest of two worlds, a whole new creature created out of pure youki and reiki, whose whole existence threatens the threads of life as they've known it. The fruit of a brief encounter fueled by unearthly lust bestowed upon a miko and a taiyoukai by the kami themselves. (SESSKAG)R
1. Prologue

**Disclaime**r: I do not owe Inuyasha and any related characters. I was also somewhat inspired by a Broadway musical called SPRING AWEKENING (and a few others, to be honest), and will, for that, quote significant lines as they have bred the chapters.

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**Summary**: As a disease cast by Naraku plagues humanity after his death, Kagome finds herself allied to a very driven taiyoukai, whose ward lies moribund, victim to said illness. The quest to the cure, however, leads the two opposite beings to a brief encounter fueled by unearthly lust bestowed upon them by the very source of their answer. Afraid of the consequences of what they've done, Kagome flees and is not seen again – until six years after, when new circumstances bring her, and the child she gave birth to, to the Feudal Era once more.

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**Prologue**

_"There's a part I can't tell about the darkness I know well."_

Naraku had long fallen for good. And in his end, like with all the things in our world, there was a beginning. The fabric of time had been disturbed, for the hanyou was to have had more time when mortals took the matter in their fragile hands, leaving his soul to then wander half way through this world and hell. His time had not come, and yet, he could no longer live. The ghost of what had once been a soul – Onigumo's soul, no matter how hard the creature Naraku became had tried to deny that, in life – was left to stray in what could, should and would happen. Some part of conscience remained with the spirit, guiding it from the line to hell to his own path of wicked revenge. One last breath of dread and sorrow. That's what he'd get for the time he'd been deprived of. He could no longer interact with the physical world – and lamentably was restricted by such bounds in his petty attempt of destruction. But he found he could, nonetheless, cast his soul in the world and fuse it with the weak ones. He could spread his wickedness, his darkness, and kill from inside out all he could reach. And so he did. And amongst the few people he could eventually merge into, there was a little human girl running wild in a meadow under the wise, stoic gaze of her silver-haired, golden eyed taiyoukai protector. A strange sight, indeed. Lovely, all the same.

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AN: This is just the prologue and summary of this story that I came up with. It has a long more to it, but I can't tell right now without giving most of the fun away. If you like the idea, though, let me know! I intend to post a chapter each day, though length might variate.


	2. All About Rin

_Disclaimer: I do not owe Inuyasha or any related character. Only in my dreams._

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"_Am I the face of the future? Am I the face of the past? Am I the one who must finish last?"  
- Good'n Evil – Jekyll & Hyde_

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**Chapter 1 – All About Rin**

If someone had foresought the outcome of Naraku's death, it might have been reconsidered altogether, months back when the strange allies raced against their – by that time – worst enemy. No one held the power to unravel the mysteries of the future but the kami themselves, though. And if _they_ did not see it coming – how could mortals do, _taiyoukai _or not?

Still, Sesshoumaru was never bound by restraints of whichever nature, being overwhelmed by the mere thought of having failed what was his. _Who _was his. And at that dreadful moment, five months after the spider's fall, he finally felt the weight of his _mistake_ burden his square shoulders, ever so rigid and solid. She was dying. Rin. Slowly, but surely.

The small human child slept soundlessly under heavy covers, wrapped innards the coziest furs of the Western Lands, with her soft dark hair adorning her fragile, pale and sweaty face. The Western lord hadn't left for a whole day, as if his presence was the sole thing holding the youngster's life to the ground. Over the small futon, Rin seemed even smaller then he remembered, disappearing in the warm sheets. The last time she had been awake, the little ningen was about asking desperately for her Lord's permission to engage in some dance classes she heard about the town square. He, of course, had denied. He would make of her a proper lady, of course, but what dancing would grant her, objectively speaking? There was nothing to learn from it except, perhaps, some inappropriate behaviors. He watched as the joy instantly lifted from the child's face, as she obediently bowed and left him to his chores with a quiet "Yes, Sesshoumaru-sama". She never argued. Such a devoted child, his ward.

He wasn't a man of regrets. A youkai of regrets, for that matter. But he imagined if he could've maybe granted that small permission. That maybe, if his last memory of her was a happier one, he wouldn't feel these strange, uncomfortable turns in his stomach. What was this? Guilt? Sorrow? He knew none of those feelings. He was Sesshoumaru, the Lord of the West. He didn't mourn over a ningen. Specially one who wasn't even dead yet.

**And won't be.** – his beast roared between his thoughts, loud enough for him to comprehend it. It usually left him alone, but it's appearance in the name of the child shook him somewhat. Of course, outside he was just as stoic as ever, his pale, fine lines betraying no emotion. Inside, however, the turmoil was immensurable. Suddenly, he understood that whatever he felt – if he did feel something, after all – he must overcome in order to keep his beast at bay. It would do him no good to anger the wild creature within. It would only bring destruction to himself and his lands.

He was left to do what he did best – search. For information, for people, for things. Whatever may and might help with Rin's – and a lot of other ningens, though he cared not about any of those fools – illness. The first knowledge to be found was, of course, the origins of said disease. It was a evil of the soul, not of the body, and that was why the herbalists of his castle could not yet find a cure. And that was why, he also discovered, tenseiga wouldn't be able to heal anything coming of it. The soul was being eating from inside, and even though he could crash the hold of the creatures trying to take souls from this world, he could not – even if he tried, which he did – free the soul from whatever was plaguing it from within. It was dematerializing, slowly flowing back to the reign of the spirits and leaving behind what little a receptacle there was in this earth.

His research led him, a week after his insight, to an old priestess whose lineage served his father in his very birth. The family records told the story briefly, hiding details he was determined to unravel, explaining how his mother's poison affected his not yet formed body, slowing the gestation and causing unforeseen internal damage to both the mother and the pup. She bore him for two years until the priestess was found and, with her, a solution. He did not know what had been done, but felt it was in a way responsible for what he was, nonetheless. So he silently respected the old woman's family, even if he would not show the appreciation by any visible means except… well, not killing her after he was done.

She showed him proper respect, but no fear. She listened to his questions, but saw right through him to his reasons. She showed him the solution, but not the means to access it. He left her hidden forest with only a hope and a name: _Shin'nen_. A flower, unique and precious. So unique, in fact, he couldn't find any records of its actual existence in his library whatsoever, concerning him to some extent as Rin's time ran through his rigid fingerprints.

What he found instead was a legend. Old as time, written in a sealed parchment so worn out it could probably be dissolved by the lightest of Sesshoumaru's touches. Jaken held it up as he read, then, because as grumpy as he could be, the toad's hands posed no threat of releasing poison all over the paper, unlike the taiyoukai's.

_The kami know love, trust and faith just as they share hate, betrayal and loss. The world above and beyond ours is no different, for the gods also mourn for what they once had and what they could never have, even in their unlimitedness. And when they do, they bless the world beneath. The tear of a kami can cultivate life where none grows. Blessed life, to bless the living through the harmony of light and dark, good and evil. _

He sighed as the information sank in.

* * *

The day was bright and warm, one of those that held the promise of a refreshing bath, if Kagome could convince Inuyasha to diverge from their original path for the night time. They had been traveling at a fast pace for almost a week, almost as if they were running after – or from - Naraku.

They still journeyed on. Kagome, the beautiful and pure miko; Inuyasha, the careless hanyou; Shippo, the innocent kitsune pup; Sango, the fearless slayer; Miroku, her perverted husband and Kilala, their youkai friend. Not one of them was quite sure of the reason why they kept moving around the country, simply that it was how things had always been. They were a pack. They ate, laughed, slept, woke, walked, fought threats and ate again. It was odd to face a life outside that pattern. At least for Kagome and Shippo. The rest of the group slowly drifted off to their own ever desired lives. Naraku was gone. The jewel had been wished away. The life they deserved was unfolding, for each one of them, piece by piece.

Sango was pregnant, which meant she and Miroku would have to eventually – sooner rather than later – root somewhere to build their lives as a regular – well, as far in normality as the life of a slayer-monk couple could go – family. For weeks there had been intimate conversations on the topic, from where to live to what bring – or who bring along with them. They wished Kagome would join them, but knew that, in the end, she wouldn't. Her life was either with Inuyasha or in her own era, and they could provide none of those options in the humble provisions of a feudal village.

Inuyasha tried his best to adopt the façade he thought his pack position demanded; the responsible, strong and headstrong alpha he would never get to truly embody. He was not his half-brother, and he no longer shared Sesshoumaru's assumption that he should be. He was a half-demon, a hanyou. So what? His pack was alive. Naraku and all his traces, vanished. Provided he didn't have much to do with the ultimate fight – being Kagome the one to bring down the spider for good – he still felt he finally earned the right to be who he was. And live the life that was meant to be his, many decades before. But he tried. For some time he kept trying, even when no thread hovered above them any longer. It was tiresome. And day by day he, too, slipped down the road of his own choices. He chose Kikyou.

Kagome was surprisingly okay with the outcome of the situation. Inuyasha was what she could call her puppy love, if his dog heritage allowed her to make such pun, the sort of affection you'll get for a pet you cherish, or a younger brother you don't know anything of yet. She would, as both of them had realized by then, always love him in a way only the kami could understand. It ached her to see him leave for Kikyou – it really did. But not for the reasons she one day might've hoped. She merely wondered what shadow of a future he would share with the undead priestess. It was common knowledge – extended even to the hanyou himself – that the miko had had her run of life and would always be an empty shell, condemning her friend to a life full of dread, for once he was mated – it was for life. It was like that for all inu youkai, Kagome had learned; they could take as many mistress they wanted throughout their lives – concubines, as they called – but if they truly intended to mate someone, it was a once on all-lifetimes decision. Nothing in life nor death could break the bond. But… still… Kikyou was bound to die. She had returned to this world, and yet… Even though she could extend her life to some extent, she could never truly reach his life span, nor give him the pups she knew he had hoped to sire one day. It was his choice, all the same. And he was the one willing to live with its consequences.

With little to no complaint coming from her hanyou companion – astonishingly, Kagome managed to direct the pack to a meadow a few miles west, close to a cold, smooth spring, with shallow waters, perfect for the bath she was in desperate need of.

Sango declined her invitation to go and take a bath – she realized her best friend needed some quiet time with her husband, so she tried to convince her no further. Instead, Kagome took the opportunity to plainly enjoy the silence revolving her senses. Though she could eventually turn some of them off, nature's silence, like this, was rare and welcomed. It was not really silent. She could hear the leaves flowing, the bats moving between the dense forest, and the water moving around her, enveloping her body in a cloak of shimmer, enlightened by the moonlight tracing her nude features. And even so, it calmed her like only her mother's arms could.

She drifted into and out of sleep several times, taking small minute naps between her briefs swims. Her senses were still somewhat numbed, so she only noticed the barrier surrounding the area when the man who evoked it was already staring at her floating body, his feet pointing at her very direction.

With a gasp, Kagome tried to maintain some of her modesty, shifting and hiding her body under the cloudy water. Her heart missed a beat as she took the form a few steps away, in the grass. His tall, lean figure would be hardly replicated, but those eyes were what sent shivers all the way along her spine, making her straight up her body the best she could in front of the sharp glaring taiyoukai.

"Se…sesshoumaru-sama" was all her voice would give at the moment, even if she wanted to say much more. And she did. She wanted to scream, to submerge once more and disappear into the darkness beneath, away from the killing perfection targeting her.

"Miko." The taiyoukai acknowledged her, nodding his head just slightly before resuming his stoic position, towering over her from where he stood.

Kagome pondered how to proceed. The Western lord, in all his mighty coldness was practically breathing over her naked body. She shrieked in a smaller ball under water, trying to disappear, but realizing reality was crushing down on her as he twitched his lips in a smirk. What the hell was he thinking? She never saw Sesshoumaru smirking!

* * *

He had been waiting for over an hour for the opportunity to present itself. He could, of course, always collect the girl right in front of her petty pack. But he preferred, even so, to give her space to honorably consider what he was to demand. Yes. It would seem like an offer, perhaps even a request to her, but that was what it was: a demand. Sesshoumaru wanted, Sesshoumaru had it. It would be foolish to ever think differently, but he'd humor her this once.

When she finally wandered off by herself, the taiyoukai silently followed, quickly summoning a barrier in the immediate land around them as her body dropped in the water. His gaze slowly drifted from her surroundings to her shimmering body.

It was a sight. Of what exactly he couldn't be sure. But he found himself entranced by the curves he caught in the feminine figure floating in the calm spring. Youkai woman were beautiful in their own mystical way, but they bore not the soft lines of the ningen, nor her gentle light. Gentle…There it was, a word anew to his ancient mind. It fit with the freshness the miko had about herself. New, and pure. And…

Human. Weak. Breakable. Fool. Miko or not, reiki or not, in the end of the eve, she still was a filthy ningen, of the kind his father betrayed his whole lineage for. He couldn't see the appeal. She was too small, too fragile to bear strong pups, too free-willed to be a proper mate and not even half as charming as the concubines he'd taken in favor of his beast along the centuries. Sesshoumaru could do without women – his only pleasure came from power and the blood that came with it – but his inner beast had hunger to sate, and let him starve served him no purpose besides creating a war within himself. He had already one too many conflicts as it was.

He let her enjoy what little comfort she could indulge in before he let his youki spiral around them, revealing his presence just as he moved forward, appearing before her floating body.

"Se… Sesshoumaru-sama!" at least she knew better, treating him with his honored title.

She tried to concede her nudity – he could guess why, scenting her purity even from where he stood – but there was nothing he hadn't seen by then, foolish miko. Her lips trembled and her eyes widened in an innocent, yet horrified look. She feared him. Just as she should. He stepped slowly forward, approaching the line between grass and water with steady, predatory strides.

"Miko." He merely replied, stopping a step from falling into the spring. Nonchalantly, he inclined his body forward, bending above her, balancing gracefully in the point of his feet as his whole torso towered over her, shadowing her body, depriving her soft skin from the blue, pale moonlight, bringing an even more eerie appearance to the miko, now covered in darkness. Kagome – he remember vaguely her name – cringed and he couldn't help but drop his façade for miliseconds, drafting something alike a smirk in his tight lips.

'Yes. Yes, shrink away, little miko. This is your place. And you better keep that in mind if you want to get through me.' Somehow he acted as if she could actually hear his thoughts, and for a few seconds he awaited her answer. Realizing just how silly that had been – without giving it away, though – he straightened his back, returning to his full length before speaking again.

"Come, miko. This Sesshoumaru has come to fetch you." He made sure his voice held no doubt, no question. She pleasantly flushed, looking around as a cornered puppy. He then understood.

"Attire yourself properly, ningen, this Sesshoumaru does not have time to spare." He turned, giving his back to the small human as she obediently climbed out of the water and briefly wrapped herself in her tiny odd clothing. He would have to question her about that later on.

"Sesshou…maru-sama… What are you…" she started, but was caught of guard by his fierce gaze. Frozen in place, Kagome bit her bottom lip, feeling her breathing raise once more. "What can I help you with…?" she corrected, knowing he did want something of her, or he wouldn't have been so civil from the start. She could but only wonder what it was she, a human, could have to offer to the intimidating taiyoukai.

"You will come with this Sesshoumaru to retrieve an item lost to time itself." He approached her, feeding off of her confused expression. She didn't have to know. But he needed her cooperation so, once again, he decided to humour the woman with answers to the unspoken questions.

"It is this Sesshoumaru's knowledge where to find the flower able to heal the illness Naraku has spread. While this Sesshoumaru does not usually meddle into humans affairs, it is my duty as lord to stablish harmony between species, even the lower ones, like yourselves." He purposefully, of course, omitted the fact that his ward was afflicted by such disease. Kagome, though, was brighter then he'd credit her for.

She twisted her lips, feeling somewhat soft inside for his undesired show of affection. She knew he cared not about ningens, but he did protect his little ward, Rin, the adorable child she too grew to love as hers. As she was now feeling slightly more in control, the miko raised an eyebrow and asked.

"_It's all about Rin, isn't it?"_

**AN: Hope you liked it. I do realize it might be a boring start, but I do have to set things up before the story truly begins, don't I? Review and favorite if you like, and please be patient if I made any mistakes. English is not my native language, after all! I'm looking for help, I still don't know how this whole BETA thing works, but someone suggested I should get one. So... anyone?**


	3. Take off

_Disclaimer: I do not owe Inuyasha or any related character. Only in my dreams._

**AN: I planned on starting this story like ages ago, but my pc went to hell and came back just now. Sooooo... I'll be writing it from now on. The chapters should be of this length, usually, not much bigger or shorter. I do need a Beta, but I don't know how that stuff works. Someone heeeelp me! Anyway. Read, review, favorite, do whatever you want! :) It is gonna be a looooong story, so yes, it's gonna take sometime to reach some one the points mentioned in the summary!**

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"Do not suppose things that are beyond your understanding, miko. A ningen's life or two are not of my concern. But this Sesshoumaru will do what must be done to prevent further disadvantage for the Western lands." his answer seemed to hold no emotion, but Kagome knew better. The brief seize of his left eyebrow flagged his discomfort at her comment, so she perceived the true reasons of his actions no further, for she had already guessed them. Little Rin must've been affected by the terrible illness. Or if not her, someone of her concern. What else could move almighty Sesshoumaru to her call?

_Silly youkai. If he would only tell me the child is hurt, I'd be half way there already. How much can your pride cost you yet, Sesshoumaru? _Kagome wondered to herself, holding a soft gaze for a few moments.

"I'll help, if I can. What do you need me for, Sesshoumaru-sama?" she finally replied, and the slight bulging of Sesshoumaru's eyes made her lack of resistance more then worth it, though she had considered giving him a hard time before helping in his quest just a few seconds before. He thought she would give him a hard time, too, apparently, because his upper muscles suddenly relaxed a tenth, as if he had been building up tone so far to physically coerce her, if needed.

"There is no certainty concerning the forms in which you might help yet, miko, only that it will you will be required once we arrive at our destination." his eyes regained his cold constrain and his voice sounded as imposing as usual, reminding the human girl of her place beyond his icy stare.

Confrontation was no option. She had no idea what was asked of her, and had just accepted she would not know until it was time to do it. _Perhaps he himself doesn't know_, she mused, _why it is that I must go. _

"Why... Do you think I should go, Sesshoumaru? I mean... What hinted my presence might be needed? If it's just a flower you need, I don't see why I... have anything you can't do." Kagome murmured, walking slowly towards the stoic figure.

"You are of most and absolute inferiority to this Sesshoumaru in both power and connections. All you have is what you are. I need a miko." he half lied. It wasn't all true, because it was not a miko in essence he was demanded by the prophecy; it was a pure, good soul. And as far as the ones he knew went, she was the closest to that.

"Oh, I see... So... Yasha isn't gonna like this one bit... But i'm sure I can convince him. It's not like we've been doing much lately anyway. At least he might find something to kill in the way" before the end of her sentence, Sesshoumaru had already raised his hand mid-air, silencing her.

"The hanyou and his pack are not to join us, miko. We shall leave alone."

"What? I can't just leave them! They will..." Kagome started, building up some uprising at the mention of leaving her friends behind for what might be a long journey. And besides, Sesshoumaru had already appeared and practically demanded that she helped him, who was he to now force her to do it so by herself? Alone in the world with the cruelest of beings!

"They'll be glad of it, ningen, believe me. It is time you realize your position in this world. You are a miko, you do not belong in a pack, and all of them know it. Right now they are each discussing their future and none of them include you in it." the taiyoukai coldly replied, holding no deceit in his voice.

He could, after all, hear just that. Apart from Kilala and Shippou who were both playing hide and seek, the remaining components of the inu-pack were, indeed, talking about the decisions they should take in the coming times. And there was one common question: what should they do about Kagome? All was right, except for how to fit their friend in their so hoped for new lives.

Kagome knew of it. She pretended not to hear, but how could one not to, when living with those people for so long? She could almost hear their thoughts, but she didn't have to, for she – too – had already listened to conversations such as those the youkai told many times before. But one thing was to pretend not to know when the only witness to your lies was youself, and another when someone presented the facts to your face. How could she deny him the reality of what she avoided for so long?

With anger. With rage. _Damn him, idiot youkai. Who he thinks he is to say something like that? He, who nobody loves. He, who nobody cares about. He, the killing perfection!_

"Damn you! **Damn you all**!" she screamed, both in her mind and voice, and turned to give him her back and put some distance between any of them and herself. Three steps further into the grass and her body was thrown across the water, reaching the other side of the bank of the river, pressed against a tree by a very rigid taiyoukai body.

"Hold your tong, ningen, before I **cut** it off." his voice echoed within her soul, bringing up bitter thoughts and further anger.

"Then do it! Cut it, eat it, burn it! What gives you the right to say awful things to my face and have the _NEEERVE_ to demand me to help you? I respect you! You are strong and powerful, but that's it. You are no better than me! You are intolerable and there is absolutely no chance I'm traveling all alone with you, ice lord! Actually, there is no chance I'm traveling with you AT ALL! You tell me what needs to be done and I'll do it by myself." she finally concluded, thinking of little Rin and what must be done to cure her, despite of her own hatred against the demon lord. It was not for him, but for humanity as a whole.

* * *

Sesshoumaru had not foreseen the little ningen's reaction to his words. Of course he expected some downside of emotions coming out of the predictable thing, but rage and fire of the kind weren't amongst them. He had expected her to cry and take some time to deal with the fact that her group no longer required her presence, but instead, she not only seemed to already understand that fact very well, but hate him for forcing her to face it.

_What a curious creature. _**Fierce bitch. **_Fierceness, beast? This petty disposition is barely savage. _**Savage is good.**_ Good is silent._

Pushing aside his beast once again, the taiyoukai evaluated the enraged woman between his arms – pierced in the three – for instants before growling thunderously under her ear. He was a predator, a killer, his voice, his body, his whole presence was designed to inspire fear and she'd better soon realize that.

She shrank and turned her head, unknowingly baring the slim side of her neck in submission to the inu-youkai. Sesshoumaru knew of her humanity and lack of knowledge of the inu's customs, but something within himself reverberated at her display of submission, nonetheless.

He growled once again, lifting Kagome's body from the ground, her screams ringing loud inside his ears as she took notice of the cloud forming beneath them. With one last growl, the strongest one, Sesshoumaru silenced the miko, baring his sharp teeth with the promise of hurting her if she ever dared to do question him again.

Delighted with the new found silence of her fast-beating heart, he smiled. A broad, cynic smile. Well, the kamis were witness to his attempt to convince the girl. He was not the most diplomatic youkai in the Feudal Lands, though.

And she realized that as they took air and disappeared in the horizon.


	4. So she rises

_Disclaimer: I do not owe Inuyasha or any related character. Only in my dreams._

**_EN: Hi! Thanks for those who favorited/followed the story! :) Quick chapter just to finish this whole travelling thing and get going with the main part of the story in the next chapter! Please, review! Good or bad critics, but I do want your opinion!_**

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Had she foreseen the inuyoukai's reaction to her uprising, Kagome would've rethought it, very willingly, finding it much rather agreeable to walk freely then cross the skies tightly pressed against a driven taiyoukai. _Driven by __**what**_**, **she was not sure. Her anger seemed to affect him little to not at all, but her submission toward his physical threats somehow started an agitated behaviour out of him. Had he expected her to fight harder? Should she? She didn't know! She was scared, angry, and upset. She didn't want to leave her friends behind, partially out of fear of what could happen to them - or herself - but also out of the even deeper apprehension regarding the consequences of her departure. Would they worry, or be relieved, as Sesshoumaru so roughly suggested? Would they forget her...? Would they...

_No. They wouldn't. They're my friends! They must be dead worried! What does this ice lord know, afterall? He doesn't have any friends! He knows nothing about trust! They will never forget. To Hell with his damned cloud, I wanna walk! _ she thought, pressing her eyelids as her reiki rose around their mingled bodies, without her acknowledgment.

She was scared. Angry. Scared. Angry. Scared. Angry. She was no weak little girl! It was unfair to let someone - even the almighty western lord - deal with her as such when she had spent her last years dedicating her life fully to training her spiritual powers. Powers that should - and would - aid her against creatures like that. Against him.

* * *

Sesshoumaru felt restless, finding it oddly hard to control the deep urge trying to surface from within his beast to bite the neck she unknowingly offered him. It would be an act in demonstration of his final domination over the overly spirited ningen. Scaring her even further would do no good to his purposes, though, and against all his beast's impulses, he declined every opportunity presented by the oblivious girl, still showing her long neck as if serving a tray of food to a hungry homeless man. It involved no sexual desire whatsoever, for his part. It was all about power, and his inu instincts.

**Bite. **

_Hush. Smell her fear. It will do us no good to engrave her. We'll deal with the pest once our task is done._

**Then bite?**

_Then you choose. _

With the new found silence, the taiyoukai returned his attention to the small being pressed against his clothes. She was getting warmer, her heart beating faster in a clear sign of exasperation. Even if Sesshoumaru could not actually read minds as some rare youkais could, he was a rather experienced people reader, collecting in these small manner adjusments that the miko had resumed her thinking. He could point out the fear across her breakable lines, sense the bitter smell of it in the air, and knew right then that she intended on putting up an argument of some sort.

The first brush of her reiki against his skin might have passed as his imagination, but the following ones left no room for doubt: an atmosphere of pure spiritual energy slowly but surely surrounded his own bubble of youki, heating up the air between them to unbearable temperatures.

His clothes remained undamaged, but his skin begin frying as her power breached through his own. How...? Stoic as ever, slightly curved, only, Sesshoumaru rose his youki higher, covering her reiki in an envelope of darkness, pressing it against herself to at least prevent it from burning him to ashes. It proved to be a difficult task, and he would never admit so. The ningen had improved immensly since the last encounter they had, and for his underrate of her, he was to blame.

"Refrain your power, miko, before this Sesshoumaru is forced to do it for you." his voice echoed in her mind, waking her from her stupor. Didn't she even know what she did to him?

Apparently no. Her blue eyes widened and blinked, and immediately her reiki was called back within, as if it had never left her tiny frame. It took her a few seconds to assert the situation and come to conclusions about what had indeed happened, and when she did, mortification became her.

"Oh, Sesshoumaru-Sama. I didn't... Oh... Are you hurt? Kami... I didn't... i just..." she started, bitting her bottom lip. She seemed honestly... worried. Worried? Why would she be so?

Of course she would kill him if she could, just as would any other creature, wouldn't she?

Why couldn't he smell deceit?

Bothered at her honesty and the extent of her powers, he growled, ignoring her question and looking above.

"We will arrive at our destiny in an hour. You should rest and refrain from using your reiki, miko. Specially in me."

"I didn't mean to, I was just... angry... and scared. You're not gonna hurt me, are you? You just... I mean... We could walk, right? I don't like flying very much. And you're kinda holding me too tight... I just thought we could... I don't know... walk..."

"It would be a two day walk, miko. Would you take responsabily for the deaths to take place in the meantime?"

"I-I... no... no, of course! You are... Right... Just... It wouldn't hurt for you to like be a little less icy, you know. And stop like hurting my hips. You are a youkai, for god's sake! You might just break my bones if you press it any stronger!"

He relaxed his fingers a little bit and didn't answer. She knew he wouldn't, and didn't inquire anymore.

They just waited in silence, enjoying what little peace they could get before they finally reached their destiny, the Uuld'e Mount.


End file.
